Edmonds district asks for bond to replace 3 schools

EDMONDS — Replacements for a 1950s-era elementary school and two other schools built in the 1960s are three of the major projects included in the Edmonds School District’s $275 million bond issue, which voters will decide on Feb. 11.Voters also will be asked to extend the district’s regular levy to pay for items such as staff to work in the district’s curriculum, athletic, music and drama programs, textbooks and other teaching materials, transportation and services for special-needs students.The Edmonds School District is the largest in Snohomish County with 19,330 students and an annual operating budget of $212 million. It serves Lynnwood as well as Edmonds.The biggest single project under the proposed bond measure is replacing Alderwood Middle School, a $59 million job. The school was built in 1966 and still has its original boilers, electrical system and single-pane windows, said Stewart Mhyre, the school district’s executive director for business and operations.The school, which has an enrollment of about 700 students, would be relocated to property just north of Martha Lake Elementary School on Larch Way in Lynnwood.Plans also call for replacing Madrona School, built in 1963, which now serves 650 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The complex has an aging heating system and five separate buildings connected by pathways. “Security of the facility is incredibly difficult,” Mhyre said. A new school, expected to cost $44 million, would be built on site.Lynndale Elementary, built in 1957, is the district’s oldest school. When its boiler broke down last February, the district had to ferry a fan unit back and forth from another school for several days until replacement parts arrived, Mhyre said. The school has an enrollment of 427 students. Replacing it is expected to cost $32 million, and the new school would be built on site.Bond money also would pay for a long-discussed move of the district’s maintenance and transportation facility, now located on a 10-acre site on Alderwood Mall Boulevard. The new facility, expected to cost $30 million, would be built on school district property off 52nd Avenue W.If voters approve the bond issue, the projected tax rate for 2015 would be 48 cents per $1,000 in assessed property valuation.Continuing the regular levy would mean property owners would pay $2.77 per $1,000 tax valuation.The owner of a $300,000 home would pay $975 a year in school taxes if both the levy and bond measures are approved.Proposed school projectsThe Edmonds School District is asking voters to approve a $275 million bond issue. Here are some of the projects it would fund and scheduled completion dates:$59 million to replace and relocate Alderwood Middle School (2017).$44 million to replace Madrona K-8 school (2018).$40 million to modernize Spruce, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace elementary schools (2019).$40 million to improve safety, heating and ventilation, roofing and energy efficiency, and make other capital improvements districtwide (2018).$32 million to replace Lynndale Elementary School (2018).$30 million to relocate and replace the district’s maintenance and transportation facility (2019).$30 million to reduce class sizes in first through sixth grades and add classrooms for full-day kindergartens districtwide; add classroom capacity at Edmonds-Woodway High School (2018).Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.

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